In a recent Federal court case (in the Southern District of Florida), a North Carolina bank attempted to reach the assets sequestered by a debtor in an offshore trust. The bank’s attempt was thwarted by the District Court.

Bitcoin is a digital or virtual currency that uses peer-to-peer technology for the payment of goods and services. It is an internet-based currency that was established in 2009, and has experienced such exponential growth that companies such as eBay and Overstock now accept it as a form of payment.

The economic downturn we have experienced over the past few years have made sovereign states desperate for your money. We have seen a wide push by many developed nations, most notably U.S. and Germany, to pursue "offshore" wealth.

Here is an interesting article from AP about citizenship for sale in the Caribbean. Most nations sell citizenship, or at least permanent residence with a path to citizenship (including the U.S. and many EU nations) - Caribbean nations make it very affordable. We have helped our clients obtain citizenship in various countries, mostly in East Caribbean. The need for a second citizenship is usually fueled by tax planning (i.e., the client is planning to surrender primary citizenship) or politics (if you may need to flee Russia or Saudi Arabia someday, you need a second passport). Costs and difficulty of obtaining second citizenship varies by country, but in all cases the most important consideration is the ability to travel using the second passport. For example, an individual holding a U.S. or a Schengen passport may travel most anywhere in the world without a visa. The same is not true for citizens of many Caribbean nations.

The Internal Revenue Service today reopened the offshore voluntary disclosure program to help people hiding offshore accounts get current with their taxes and announced the collection of more than $4.4 billion so far from the two previous international programs.

There is a rumor going round that the Swiss banks may enter into a sweeping settlement with the U.S. government to settle civil claims. The banks will hand over names of thousands of U.S. clients and pay billions of dollars. The settlement will not cover criminal charges pending against several Swiss and Israeli banks.

Los Angeles, CA, September 22, 2011 – Over the past decade attorney Jacob Stein has represented over one thousand clients seeking to protect their assets from claims of creditors. During the same time Mr. Stein taught several hundred seminars, educating thousands of lawyers and accountants on how to properly protect their clients’ assets, and published numerous scholarly articles.

A corporate trustee is a bank or a licensed trust company that provides trustee services on a professional basis. A corporate trustee may be as large as the trust department of Bank of America or the Northern Trust Company, or a little organization you have never heard of. All corporate trustees charge for their services. Some on a flat fee basis, some as a percentage of assets under management. How much a trustee will charge depends on what it is required to do under the trust agreement.

There are several scenarios for married couples to consider in asset protection planning: To protect assets from creditors or potential lawsuits, to provide for a spouse and/or minor children after death, and to protect oneself in the event of a divorce.

I have a few seminars coming up on asset protection planning. On January 19, 2011 I will be teaching a morning webinar, with nation-wide distribution, sponsored by Thomson Reuters, and an evening seminar at the Los Angeles County Bar in Downtown, Los Angeles. On February 16, 2011 I will be teaching a nation-wide webinar on asset protection, sponsored by the Rossdale Group.

Show of hands, who has not heard of the McCourt divorce case? If you live in Los Angeles there is barely any other news coverage. While public divorces of the rich have always made great fodder for gossip journalists, this divorce sheds some light on a frequently used, but infrequently discussed, asset protection technique.

Many foreign jurisdictions have enacted LLC statutes. A lot of these jurisdictions are so-called tax havens, which generally means that an entity organized in that jurisdiction will not be taxed by that jurisdiction if the entity is not conducting any business in the jurisdiction. If a U. S. business or U. S. real estate is owned by an entity organized in a tax haven, the entity will not be doing any business in the tax haven and will not be taxed there.

In a recent decision (Olmstead v. FTC, Supreme Court of Florida, June 24, 2010), the Florida Supreme Court held that the charging order protection, an "exclusive remedy" for creditors pursuing LLC interests, is actually not the exclusive remedy, despite the plain meaning of the statute.

Every day more and more Swiss banks say "no" to US business. This year alone 7 Swiss banks that we regularly did business with told us that they will be kicking out all US clients and not accepting any new business.

It is bad enough that most of the people who invested with Madoff will lose a significant amount of their wealth. It is also possible, in fact, likely, that many of the investors who received distributions from Madoff or pulled their money out in time may have to return the money.

The economic woes that have already impacted so many businesses are a boon for those of us who practice in the area of asset protection. About one year ago the flood gates opened and mortgage bankers, mortgage brokers and real estate developers poured in.

Following the credit crunch of August 2007, the real estate market has experienced a significant decline. Many of our clients are heavily invested in real estate or are involved in various development projects. For them, the reality of the declining market means a lot more than an interesting headline. It means that their entire estate may be facing a risk of loss. Here is a real life example.